Most of the attention devoted to the St. Louis Cardinals revolves around Albert Pujols, and since his trade, Matt Holliday, but the Cardinals are making a push for the NL’s best record thanks to their arms.
The Cardinals completed a 20-6 August with a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals yesterday, and along with opening up a 10-game cushion over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, the Cards are just 1 ½ games behind the Dodgers for the best record in the NL.
While their Central rivals have all been mediocre at best, the Cardinals have gone 36-17 over the last two months, and in that time, their trio of Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Joel Pineiro have gone a combined 24-2.
Is that ridiculous, or what?
Carpenter may have missed the better part of two seasons, but he’s pitching like he hadn’t missed any time.
- Carpenter is 14-3 on the season, and he leads the majors in ERA at 2.20.
- In his last 11 starts, Carpenter is 9-0 with a 2.00 ERA. He’d be on a run of 11 straight wins, but both of his no-decisions came in games against the Astros in which the bullpen blew 3-2 leads in 4-3 losses.
- He’s allowed two runs or less in nine of his last 11 starts, and 10 of those 11 starts have been quality starts.
Wainwright earned the win against Nationals yesterday to pick up his major league-leading 16th win, and though both of the blemishes in that 24-2 mark belong to him, he’s on a run most pitchers could only dream of having.
- In his last 12 starts, Wainwright is 8-2. He was 4-1 in six July starts, and he recorded the same mark in six August starts.
- In those 12 starts, Wainwright has a 1.22 ERA. That’s only 12> earned runs allowed in 88 innings.
- He hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any of those 12 starts, and he hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his last 13 starts.
- He had three walks today, three times more than in his previous five August starts and the same amount he’d allowed in his last seven overall starts.
- Keeping in line with his stinginess with free passes, he has 75 strikeouts and 17 walks in these last 12 starts. That’s a little less than a 4.5/1 K/BB ratio. In his first 16 starts, his K/BB ratio was just over 2/1 (89 Ks/40 BB).
- After allowing 12 homers in his first 16 starts, Wainwright has allowed only three in his last 12 starts, and two of those came in one game against the Dodgers, a game that the Cardinals won 3-2.
While he may be overshadowed by the two Cy Young candidates in Carpenter and Wainwright, Pineiro is quietly pitching the best that he has since his early years in Seattle.
Few could have predicted he’d be on the run he’s on, given the 2-9 mark that he had in May and June after going 4-0 in April.
- In his last 10 starts, Pineiro is 7-0. One more win would tie his run of eight straight wins in June and July 2003 with the Mariners.
- Pineiro has walked only 18 batters in 170.2 innings. He hasn’t allowed a walk in 13 of his 25 starts this season, and he’s allowed just one in seven other starts.
If you’re a bettor, you’ve come out just a little nicely if you’ve taken the Cardinals when these three have been on the hill. When Carpenter, Wainwright, and Pineiro have started in the last couple of months, St. Louis is 29-4 – 9-2 with Carpenter, 10-2 with Wainwright, and 10-0 with Pineiro.
It remains to be seen if either Carpenter or Wainwright can take home the NL Cy Young, or if Tim Lincecum is going to make it a repeat despite their best efforts, but there are more important things in the cards than individual awards.
You’d have to expect at least a sub-par start or two down the stretch, but if this trio can keep delivering the wins and John Smoltz can continue to pitch as well as he has since his move to St. Louis, there’s a good chance the Cardinals can overtake the Dodgers and beat out the Dodgers and the Phillies for the NL’s best record and the ability to avoid either of those teams in the NLDS.
The Dodgers and the Phillies have been looked at as the best teams in the NL, and that may prove to be true in the end. But with their rotation, and a stud closer, not to mention a lineup that includes two of the most dangerous hitters in the league, the Cardinals best not be taken lightly.
